Dancing Robot Swan Triggers Emotions

The Dying Swan is sometimes moving smoothly and gently, sometimes in a dramatic and fiery manner, as Tchaikovsky´s majestic music from the ballet Swan Lake is playing. Yet this is no ordinary ballet dancer, but a robot in the form of a swan, created at Mälardalen University and choreographed by professional dancer Åsa Unander-Scharin.

The swan robot´s just over four-minute-long dance has so far been seen only by a select few. But it has already made a big impression. Tearful eyes and words like "touching," "fascinating" and "beautiful" are some of the reactions.

"We want to explore the limits of what a robot can do, what human expressions it can mimic, and how it affects people's perception of the robot when it makes an appearance in art and dance," says Lars Asplund, Professor of Computer Science at Mälardalen University in Västerås, Sweden.

His research field is robotics and he has designed the approximately one-metre-tall dancing swan on the basis of a robot that was previously a student´s degree project. The robot was built by a modular system and in the white wings, neck, beak and feet there are a total of 19 different joints, which makes it very flexible.

The idea for the dancing robot was hatched jointly by Lars Asplund and his colleague Kerstin Gauffin, who works with theatre at Mälardalen University.

"With our swan we are showing that we can use robots in new ways -- simply because they are beautiful and give the audience new experiences," says Kerstin Gauffin, who wants to see robots appear on stages along with "ordinary" actors.

She got in touch with the professional dancer and choreographer Åsa Unander-Scharin, who now has designed the robot's special dance to the tunes of the famous composer Tchaikovsky. By systematically having the robot swan perform each movement by itself -- right wing up, neck down, etc -- Unander-Scharin has "taught" the robot swan her choreography because the computer inside it "recalls" the movement pattern and then plays it as an entire dance program.

Åsa Unander-Scharin is used to working with stage performances in which the choreography interacts with music, scene space and new technology. She has also done research in the field and wrote the thesis "Human mechanics and soulful machines: choreographic perspectives on human qualities in body movement."

"I think it's exciting to see how emotionally touched people can get by machines, and to do the choreography for the swan robot has been great fun," says Åsa Unander-Scharin.

On September 23-26, Mälardalen University´s dancing robot will be shown for the first time in public, at Sweden's largest book fair in Gothenburg.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 to April 18, 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century.
He was the author of the general theory of relativity and contributed much to the theoretical development of the special theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and cosmology..

3D computer graphics

3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that utilize a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images.

Such images may be for later display or for real-time viewing.

Despite these differences, 3D computer graphics rely on many of the same algorithms as 2D computer vector graphics in the wire frame model and 2D computer raster graphics in the final rendered display.

In computer graphics software, the distinction between 2D and 3D is occasionally blurred; 2D applications may use 3D techniques to achieve effects such as lighting, and primarily 3D may use 2D rendering techniques.

3D computer graphics are often referred to as 3D models.

Apart from the rendered graphic, the model is contained within the graphical data file.

However, there are differences.

A 3D model is the mathematical representation of any three-dimensional object (either inanimate or living).

A model is not technically a graphic until it is visually displayed.

Due to 3D printing, 3D models are not confined to virtual space.

A model can be displayed visually as a two-dimensional image through a process called 3D rendering, or used in non-graphical computer simulations and calculations..

For more information about the topic 3D computer graphics, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Half-a-Loaf Method Can Improve Magnetic Memories

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeChinese scientists have shown that magnetic memory, logic and sensor cells can be made faster and more energy efficient by using an electric, not magnetic, field to flip the magnetization of the sensing layer only about halfway, rather than completely to the opposite direction. They describe the new cell design in the Journal of Applied Physics, which is published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP).

Magnetic random access memory (or MRAM) cells have long been investigated as possible replacements for parts of hard disk drives, flash memory and even computing circuits. Previous designs, however, have proven to be too power-hungry or expensive to be competitive.

"Our new cell design offers a great possibility for data storage elements and logic gates that are fast and non-volatile with ultra-low power consumption," said Dr. Ce-Wen Nan of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The new cell is also simpler to make than existing components. Only two layers are needed, compared with three or more for traditional magnetic memories.

The design by Nan's group is a simple thin-layer sandwich of two different materials, each of which has very different magnetic and electrical properties. Applying a voltage to the ferroelectric layer switches its polarization in a way that starts to change the magnetic orientation of the adjacent ferromagnetic layer. This partial change alters the electrical resistance of the entire stack enough to indicate whether the cell is storing a "0" or a "1" data bit. Future research is aimed at understanding and optimizing the materials to increase the resistance change, which will enhance its commercial prospects.

Microsoft Excel-Based Algorithm Predicts Cancer Prognosis

Image via Wikipedia

Robin Hallett, a graduate student working under the supervision of Dr. John Hassell and other members of his research team from McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, developed the algorithm and used it to identify a 20 gene signature, which performed well on a 151 patient validation dataset.

Hallett said, "Until now, constructing such a signature requires the use of various clustering and classification algorithms, which in turn require specialized software and bioinformatics training. Importantly, we completed all steps of our algorithm using Microsoft Excel 2007. This software is widely, if not universally, accessible to the biological research community, suggesting that implementation of this technique will not be hampered by lack of software or training."

The researchers used data from a group of 144 patients to train the algorithm to identify genes whose expression levels correlated with patient survival. The 10 most highly ranked genes predictive of poor prognosis and those 10 genes most highly predictive of good prognosis established a 20-gene expression based predictor, which was found to perform as well as two other models in the validation group.

According to Hassell, "Our algorithm produces prediction models with comparable accuracy to other feature selection techniques while having generally better accessibility and useability for biological research scientists. We've begun using our algorithm to generate gene expression based prediction models of breast cancer cell sensitivity to commonly used anti-cancer therapies."